Denmark Selects ‘The Hunt’ As Foreign Language Oscar Candidate

Make it two in a row for Mads Mikkelsen. Denmark has chosen Thomas Vinterberg‘s Mikkelsen-starrer The Hunt as its submission for the Foreign Language Oscar. Mikkelsen also starred in last year’s entry — and eventual nominee — A Royal Affair. The Hunt, a Cannes contender in 2012, focuses on a man whose life is turned upside down when a lie is spread about him in his small town. Mikkelsen won the Cannes Best Actor prize for the role. The movie also took the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Vulcain Prize for technical artist Charlotte Bruus Christensen. It later won the British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film. Vinterberg and Tobias Lindholm also won the European Film Award for their screenplay. Magnolia released The Hunt in the U.S. in July and it was released in Denmark earlier this year where it is still the No. 1 movie at the box office with nearly $8M. Also at home, it’s one of the top five most-seen Danish films since 2000. Vinterberg is currently shooting the English-language Far From The Madding Crowd and Mikkelsen soon returns for a second season as the eponymous Hannibal in the NBC series. Denmark last won the Foreign Language Oscar with Susanne Bier’s 2010 In A Better World.